Someday
by 815
Summary: If you keep saying "Someday..." or "One day..." it will never happen. And yet she sees that one boy has already proved that wrong. — Sakura


**Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto, etc.

**Summary:** If you keep saying "Someday…" or "One day…" it will never happen. And yet she sees that one boy has already proved that wrong. ( Sakura )

* * *

Sakura never liked the night.

The only thing she liked was the stars that appeared at night. She didn't like it when it was dark like this. Eerie shadows were cast onto the ground as she strode by another lantern, walking back from the Hokage's office. The shadows intimidated her a bit, but she had already told herself to snap out of it already.

He left at night time. That's why she has never really liked that time of day.

Those words. Those two words… And even though she had fought for so long just to get him back to Konoha, she can't help but think… The girl let out a sigh. "You're thinking too much again," she told herself.

She always thought too much about him at night time. That's why she has never really liked that time of day.

"Sakura-chan!"

The girl snapped out of her thoughts and she lifted up her head and saw Naruto run over to her. She put a smile on, despite what she had been thinking before.

"Naruto," she greeted. "What are you doing here?"

"Eh heh…" The boy gave her a cheeky grin. "I'm here to grab some dinner at Ichiraku's," he said. There was a pause and then he quickly added, "Did you eat yet? Do you want to come with me?" The boy paused again and then said, "As friends… You know…"

"Hmm…" She smiled. "Alright," she agreed. Before Naruto could start shouting again she quickly said, "But only if you pay!"

* * *

Sakura was distracted during the whole dinner.

She usually had lunch with Naruto most of the time. Never dinner. She heard the boiling water in the back and a slurp of noodles from the ninja to the right of her. As Naruto ate, she stared into her bowl of ramen, twirling the chopsticks in her hand around and around the soup without actually lifting anything up and delivering it to her mouth.

He never did ask her out to dinner when they were genin even though she probably asked him once or twice. She always assumed he was busy or not interested. Or something. But she was happy when he had eaten lunch with Naruto and her back then. Once.

"What… You're not hungry?"

The second time she snapped out of her thoughts. "Huh?" she asked, dazed.

Naruto looked at her. With one look he could tell… tell that maybe something's wrong with her. He considered whether to approach it or not, but decided to leave it to rest. "You sure are spacey at night, eh, Sakura-chan…" he said instead.

A sigh came from the girl next to him. "I guess…" she admitted half-heartedly.

Naruto wasn't sure how to respond. His voice drawled as he said, "Sooooo… You're _not_ hungry."

Wow. Obvious.

Sakura shrugged. Naruto steadied his gaze on her and then, realizing that she wasn't going to talk, turned back his bowl of noodles and continued to eat – although he sneaked peeks at her from time to time, inspecting from a distance whether she had touched anything since the three seconds he saw her last.

* * *

At last she spoke.

"Naruto…"

His head snapped up and he still had extra noodles in his mouth. "Mmph?" He gulped them down and wiped his mouth with a napkin as he placed his chopsticks down. "I mean… What?"

She took a deep breath, thinking of the words she had been planning out carefully. Her eyes were still on her bowl of noodles.

"Someday we'll bring Sasuke back, right?"

Naruto arched an eyebrow wondering why she was asking such an easy question. "Uh, yeah," he said. "I promised, ne?" He winked one eye at her. He paused. "Why are you –"

"What if… Someday never comes?" she asked, her eyes narrowing. "Stuff like, 'Someday' and 'One day' won't happen unless you go head-first, right?" She looked at him. "Right?"

Naruto laughed nervously. "Sakura," he said, not adding the suffix for once. "You're –"

"But we've been going after him for so long," she said. "What if it 'Someday' never happens? What if we don't bring him back?" Questions rolled off her tongue one by one – questions that she had been thinking of for so long. Her friends were all indoors at this time of night and… yet Naruto had come across her path.

She wondered if she was doing the right thing by telling him.

Naruto waited until she was done before heaving a sigh and saying, "They happen, Sakura-chan." He began to sip his soup. "It's happened tons of times to me already."

Sakura did a double-take. "What?" she asked.

He grinned at her. "You know…" he began. "… When I was at the academy, the only thing I could think about was graduating and becoming Hokage." He smiled brightly, thinking of the times back then. "I always said to myself, 'Someday I'm going to graduate. Someday I'm going to become a ninja.'" He turned to her.

"And I did."

The girl's eyes widened in surprise. She said nothing.

"And then I told myself that, 'Someday I'm going to be respected by everyone,'" he continued. "That 'someday' is still pretty far away," he admitted. "But it's something that will come." He twisted his body so that he was facing her face to face.

"These things don't come easy, ne? But you take it nice and slow anyway and when you finally get there, it's worth it."

The girl still sat there, unmoving, but she finally cracked a smile. "I see," she said.

Naruto simply nodded as he jumped off the stool and began to walk off. "Take care, Sakura-chan," he said. "And finish eating already!"

Sakura laughed and she turned back to her bowl. And as she did, a phrase echoed in her head.

_Someday I'm going to be respected by everyone…_

The girl shook her head and her smile grew wider as she finally began to eat.

That someday came true too.

* * *

**A/N. **I tried to get into Sakura's head and I'm guessing I made her a little too angst. This came out a slight NaruSaku too, even though I was trying to focus on Sakura's character.

I don't study her character much, so this is a first attempt. Reviews are appreciated.


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